Oregon State University College of Liberal Arts


The College of Liberal Arts is the second largest of the 11 colleges at Oregon State University and offers 23 undergraduate degrees, 12 master's degrees and five doctoral degrees.
Coursework is offered at the university's main campus in Corvallis, Oregon and at the Oregon State University Cascades Campus in Bend, Oregon. As of 2015, the College of Liberal Arts employs 290 faculty members with an enrollment of just over 3,600 full-time undergraduates.

Programs

The most popular majors include psychology, economics, sociology, digital communications arts, anthropology, liberal studies, political science, history and English.

History

first offered studies in liberal arts in 1868. According to the College of Liberal Arts website, students began showing greater interest in sciences and technology by the early 1900s. The trend forced administrators to de-emphasize liberal arts as a major over the subsequent four decades.
By World War II, courses in liberal arts began to grow in popularity again and Oregon State University President A.L. Strand created the first divisional majors in humanities and social sciences at the university in 1959.
The university later added the School of Humanities and Social Sciences in 1961 and continued to expand liberal arts studies throughout the 1960s. In 1973, the school became formalized as the College of Liberal Arts. Early departments included the Humanities, Social Sciences and the Fine and Performing Arts.
The first graduate degrees were offered by the college in scientific and technical communications in 1988.
Today, the College of Liberal Arts makes up one of the largest colleges on campus with a number of notable faculty and alumni.

Notable alumni